Committee on Women Historians 2007

The Committee said goodbye and thank you to members rotating off the committee, and welcomed two new members, Peg Strobel and student member, Katherine Hijar.

The Committee organized two sessions for the 2008 annual meeting: “The Leaky Pipeline: Issues of Retention, Promotion and Quality of Life for Women in the Historical Profession” and “Women’s and Gender History in a Global Perspective” based on the “Women’s and Gender History in a Global Perspective” pamphlet series. Annelise Orleck and former committee member, James Green were the principal organizers of these sessions, respectively.

A subcommittee was set up during the year to explore the presence of history in public discourse and voices of women historians in the media. Subcommittee members will connect with Berkshire Conference coordinators on this project. One possible outcome is a conference of historians and journalists interested in women’s issues. Outreach will also be done to the Center for Women’s Media and the Scholar’s Committee of Ms. Magazine and other relevant civic and media organizations.

The committee proposes to organize a session on women and public history/women and the media for the 2009 annual meeting. Barbara Ransby and Annelise Orleck will coordinate the planning for this session.

The 2008 breakfast speaker was Lisa Yun Lee, director of the Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago. Lee is an Adorno scholar, trained at Duke University where she worked closely with the Women’s Studies Program. She is also on the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr and is a noted feminist philanthropist and public intellectual.

The Committee has sent a letter to historian and Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust inviting her to serve as the 2009 breakfast speaker.